Press Pass Security Cop at City Hall

[00:00:00]And you can take a seat.

[00:00:01]>> I will take a seat in a minute. I'm taking photographs for my news articles.

[00:00:05]>> I understand but everybody has to sit down here.

[00:00:07]>> I will sit in a moment.

[00:00:10]This is Susan Bassi. If you follow this channel, you know that we cover the courts and that often means overlapping with police and local government as we push for public records and check what's really happening on the street against what shows up in government press releases or in a mainstream media news report. I'm a reporter.

[00:00:30]>> yes.

[00:00:31]>> I'm taking pictures and I have every right to do it. I will take a seat in a minute.

[00:00:34]>> You can take a seat.

[00:00:35]>> I will take a seat in a minute. I'm taking photographs for my news articles.

[00:00:40]>> I understand but everybody has to sit down here.

[00:00:42]>> I will sit in a moment.

[00:00:45]For over 3 years, we've been reporting on a San Jose City Councilmember who sued a content creator to silence speech as the councilman planned to run for re-election. However, the politician lost the lawsuit he brought initially representing himself. Now, he has to pay not only attorneys he hired to keep the lawsuit going but over $50,000 to the attorneys for the social media creator he tried to silence through the court system. Since that lawsuit is over, we're reporting on how the politician will repay for the lawsuit he brought trying to chill speech of those critical of how he does his job. We're also reporting on a lawsuit where some online journalists are fighting for the councilman's communications with his former colleague who is now a convicted felon for the harm he did to a young child. But while doing our job as the local free press, it became clear that in San Jose, the elected officials are failing to train police and their security team that the First Amendment is not a one-way street.

[00:01:46]Hi.

[00:01:48]What are you guys doing? You may recall that as San Jose security told me to take a seat, he let two television news reporters run right through the meeting to set up their cameras in some location at City Hall. That's what we call access journalism. It's when elected officials give access to reporters that they think will help get them reelected.

[00:02:08]>> Ma'am, you're going to have to take a seat. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.

[00:02:11]>> I was in my seat and I went out and walked to talked to two newspaper people.

[00:02:16]Okay. Elected officials and the security guards they hire down at City Hall don't seem to understand how journalism works.

[00:02:25]And in California, it's actually a crime for anybody to obstruct, delay, or interfere with unpublished journalistic work, which is exactly what was going on here on this day. They were giving access to certain journalists and obstructing other journalists and our reporting. And we're going to continue to report and we're also going to continue to remind the city of San Jose that the only business protected by the First Amendment is the business of the free press.

[00:03:06]When journalists are doing their job, they're not watching the content of speech, they're watching the flow of speech and to make sure that it's protected. We want to make sure that people feel free to make public comments in City Hall and we want to make sure that they feel free to file police reports to police officers when they need to. And when security guards or police officers are not properly trained on how to do their job, that is a speech problem that we're going to have to report on.

[00:03:35]>> right back down there into the little secret room they got access, but everybody else has to stay out here. You know what that is? That's selective favoritism [music] towards the media.

[00:03:51]>> This is my statement for the sewer rates.

[00:03:54]Um >> Those two other reporters just went right through there.

[00:04:11]I'm not a reporter?

[00:04:13]>> Yes, do you have any credentials?

[00:04:14]>> Yeah, I do. Right here.

[00:04:18]Did you just say that to me?

[00:04:20]Because I don't have a big TV camera?

[00:04:23]Excuse me, I need to go where the other reporters just went.

[00:04:30]They just went right in here. I just saw them.

[00:04:43]Um, what's your name?

[00:04:46]What's your name?

[00:04:50]Okay.

[00:04:52]San Jose has a First Amendment problem.

[00:04:54]Not just how they treat independent journalists, but also what they do with public records. This security guard's pay information is not available on Transparent California, and we all have a right to know how much police officers and security guards, who seem to lack First Amendment training, are being paid with taxpayer dollars. Did you hear him say I'm not a reporter?

[00:05:18]So, I write for the Davis Vanguard. You know my name?

[00:05:21]>> My name is David. Do you remember last time we talked was about St. Patrick's Day party? Something like that. But yeah, >> Oh, that's right.

[00:05:29]You I saw you on St. Patrick's Day when we were doing a meeting.

[00:05:33]Could you please explain?

[00:05:35]>> Sure. Sure.

[00:05:37]>> Um, I'd like you to talk to him about what So, I was coming in to take pictures. I just wrote a news article.

[00:05:48]>> Last things >> Sure. No, I don't mind. We're not going back in there. We know.

[00:05:52]Okay. No, I don't mind.

[00:05:54]So, he's not a police officer. So, he doesn't know about the obligation.

[00:05:58]>> works as a security guard. He has a role that he has to do. He's got to take that, too.

[00:06:03]>> Okay, but he needs First Amendment training because he literally just said I was not a reporter and any member of the press can record in a public building and any member of the public can. And so, you guys know that and you get filmed all the time and it's not always comfortable being filmed in a public place.

[00:06:20]>> it's because he didn't see any like usually press people have like a sign.

[00:06:24]>> And that is something that you know in this day and age of cop watchers and First Amendment auditors that any member of the public there is no professional credential or license for a journalist, period. That's just not how it works.

[00:06:39]And so, they're putting people at City Hall that don't understand that.

[00:06:43]>> Yeah, we get it. May- it's just nice to have something. So, so that way they don't have to Um what's the word? Like uh challenge you on that, right? We met, I know what you do. You're a reporter for Vanguard, right? I remember that from St. Patrick's Day.

[00:07:00]Maybe he didn't know, but it's just more of let's say communication.

[00:07:03]>> Okay. He just let two reporters in from Fox News and NBC. I recognized them.

[00:07:10]>> Because I think they had some credentials.

[00:07:12]>> But we don't need that. If you look at >> It helps.

[00:07:14]>> Okay, but when you look at news all going on in Washington D.C., you see reporters chasing all those politicians with their cameras and that's what I do.

[00:07:22]So, you know, I just wrote on um the city lawsuit about the text messages. It's not the job of the public or of journalists to explain to police officers, elected officials, or security guards working at City Hall how journalism and the free press works.

[00:07:39]It's their job to understand our right to engage in that activity. And we're going to continue to talk to police officers because the police officers in San Jose are the ones who respond to a great deal of our calls that land people in the local family courts, and that's where the bulk of our reporting is focused.

[00:07:58]>> I appreciate you now.

[00:07:59]>> Well, I wouldn't go so far as heroes.

[00:08:01]You're on a spectrum. You're on a spectrum.

[00:08:03]>> a spectrum.

[00:08:04]>> And and you know that. We have Officer Dennett at one end of the spectrum and Officer Minton at the other because I've read I read your police reports. I see you guys testify in court, and my job is to follow all of that. So and you you know, whenever I >> each other do better, right?

[00:08:20]>> That's right. And and you know what?

[00:08:23]Someday when you're out and you're responding to a DV call or a child Few journalists understand how to read police reports, much less understand how they work in family or criminal court.

[00:08:35]And we're going to continue to read those police reports, and more importantly, we're going to continue to record police officers who respond to all these calls that just might land you in court one day because what a police officer writes in their report and whether they believe a false allegation or they overlook a real allegation is more important than most people realize.

[00:08:57]Appreciate you telling me that you didn't feel that way.

[00:08:59]Well, I'll do that, but I'm also on Officer Dennett because he doesn't do that. So >> Get get on with it.

[00:09:06]>> Tell me your name and badge number.

[00:09:07]>> Can I You don't remember my name? I remember your name.

[00:09:10]>> I appreciate that. You know what I appreciate even more? You remembered where I wrote for, the news organization. You could look it up. I did an article today.

[00:09:19]He's going to give you a little lesson about the First Amendment.

[00:09:35]Okay.

[00:09:37]>> Thank you.